In the past, in a retail store such as a supermarket, commodities are often sold at discounted prices. In this case, the store affixes a label (a benefit label), on which a discount amount or a discount ratio is shown, to a commodity to clearly indicate to customers that the commodity is a discounted commodity. If a benefit label is affixed to a commodity purchased by a customer, an operator of a POS (Point Of Sales) terminal reads a barcode affixed to the commodity using a scanner device and operates a keyword, a touch panel, or the like to perform processing concerning a discount.
Concerning the reading of the barcode, there is known a technique for picking up images of the barcode and the benefit label using an image sensor such as a CCD and reading information concerning a commodity code and a discount from the picked-up images of the barcode and the benefit label.
In the related art, a store clerk of the store moves the barcode affixed to the commodity to an image pickup area of the image sensor, whereby the reading of the commodity code is performed. However, if the barcode and the benefit label are apart from each other, it is likely that the benefit label is absent in the image pickup area of the image sensor. Since the store clerk needs to move the benefit label into the image pickup area of the image sensor, operation is complicated. In this case, if the store clerk overlooks the benefit label, sales registration is performed while a discount is not performed. Therefore, there is a demand for a technique that makes it possible to more surely perform the reading of the benefit label.